Cards deal Mets one more blow

New York — The Mets' lead in the NL East is gone. They might not even be in the playoffs at all if they can't snap out of their near historic funk.

The Associated Press

New York — The Mets' lead in the NL East is gone. They might not even be in the playoffs at all if they can't snap out of their near historic funk.

The spiraling Mets managed just three hits off Joel Pineiro and Jason Isringhausen in a 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals last night that dropped them into a first-place tie with Philadelphia in the division.

"We're tied now, so now we've got three games to get it done," manager Willie Randolph said. "That's the way baseball goes and we kind of made our own bed here so we've got to fight through this."

Not even Pedro Martinez could save the Mets, who had led the division alone every day since May 16.

The Mets (87-72) were ahead by seven games on Sept. 12 with 17 remaining but have lost 10 of 14 overall and seven straight at home, a monumental tailspin for a team that counted on being in the playoffs.

"I think we're due to have something special happen to us because in the time I've been here I don't think we've had a little stretch playing games like that and kind of getting away from us that easy," Martinez said.

"So I'm expecting something good to happen."

No major-league team has failed to finish first after having at least a seven-game lead with 17 to play. But with three games remaining in the regular season — a weekend series at home against Florida — the Mets might fail to win the division or qualify as the wild card.

Philadelphia, which beat Atlanta 6-4 last night, closes the season with three games at home against Washington. San Diego, which beat Milwaukee 9-5 in the opener of a four-game series yesterday, leads the Mets and Phillies by one game in the wild card.

"There's two choices: Roll over and start making vacation plans for the off-season, or battle like hell and win this thing," Mets third baseman David Wright said. "We still feel like this is our division."